The Human Rights Act

The Human Rights Act 1998 (also known as the Act or the HRA) came into force in the United Kingdom in October 2000. It is composed of a series of sections that have the effect of codifying the protections in the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law.

All public bodies (such as courts, police, local governments, hospitals, publicly funded schools, and others) and other bodies carrying out public functions have to comply with the Convention rights.

This means, among other things, that individuals can take human rights cases in domestic courts; they no longer have to go to Strasbourg to argue their case in the European Court of Human Rights.

The Act sets out the fundamental rights and freedoms that individuals in the UK have access to. They include:

Further information

For more information on where your human rights are set out, who the Human Rights Act applies to, and if human rights can be restricted, see How do human rights work?

The Ministry of Justice has produced a guide to the Act and an Easy-Read booklet explaining what the Act means. Below are links to these resources as well as copies of the Human Rights Act in other languages: